Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 517 — page 3: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

his round-shouldered old wife, and her prett face hidden from the sight of men by a thic black vail. Out among the crags, she could throw this vail aside, and enjoy an hour of unrestrained freedom. When this secret was betrayed to the world by the machinations of two precious scamps, kuown as Cale Burchard and Bowlegged Banty, whose evil designs were frustrated by the Three Jolly Pards, old Abraham said that he had re- sorted to the trick to protect her from the ruf- fianly fellows who would hold nothing sacred that belonged to a Jew. But a subsequent fact seemed inconsistent with this explanation. Even after the revela- tion, the girl still wore the same disguise; so that, on seeing the round-shouldered and deeply- vailed figure that rode beside the old Jew, no one could tell whether the disguise hid the blooming beauty of the maiden, or the shriv- eled ugliness of the beldam. But now, as he gazed at her face to face, Harry Keene held his breath with delight. And she?—she blushed divinely, yet with the instinct of maiden modesty affected surprise at finding him there. ‘* Vat haf ve here?” cried old Abraham, play- lly. Te is de brafe shentleman, Meestar Keene!” she replied, advancing with the pliant grace with whicha timid animal draws near to one who is wooing it with outstretched hand. She did not offer her hand; but, stopping at quite a distance from Harry. dropped him a prettr little courtesy. “Ttis de etry Srecnag: of Patty’s Flat!” announced the old Hebrew, proudly. ‘““The deputy marshal!” repeated the girl under her breath. She lifted her daintily-curved eyebrows as if this were a surprise. An instant her dark eyes flashed keen admi- ration at the youth who stood almost as rosy as herself before her; then the long silken lashes again swept her cheeks. “Tt isa great man that has come to us,” she said. At this instant a sharp note on the gong over the store door summoned old Abraham to busi- ess. ‘Tt isa customer!” he cried, with breathless eagerness, and scuffed away in slipshod haste, ~ Out in the store he could be heard perjuring himself, all in the way of ‘‘ business,” in his eager assurance that some shoddy goods from Connecticut were the ‘‘ latest imbordation from Baris!” Presently he shouted: Jim Gladden’s Deputy. Ba Instead of complying, she dropped her head lower, in silence. He could see her cheek dimple with a smile, the color coming and going rapidly. ‘* Won't you call me Harry?—just once!” he pleaded. She lifted her face, just so that he caught the flash of her eyes and the gleam of her white teeth, in a lightning glance. Then it dropped over her work again. There was an interval of dead silence, while he waited. Finally, in a whisper so low that even the hungry ears of love could scarcely make out the articulations, he heard his name. ‘* Hahree !” No one till he has heard his name uttered with a foreign accent, can know the charm that sweet lips lend to.it. It was foilowed, in this case, by a faint sigh; and then the girl suddenly hid her crimson face in the muslin on which she was at work. Harry glanced at her with glistening eyes. Dared he go further? But, when did lover stop with such a confes- sion? ‘* Miriam!” he said, again. She did not respond; but he could see that she vibrated with the sound of his voice. ‘* Miriam!” As if constrained, she lifted her face, and fixed her dark eyes upon him. He held out his hand, ‘* Come!” he said. **Ohb, no! no!” she panted, breathlessly. ** Yes! I want to tell you something.” She looked toward the doorway with its calico curtain. She listened. ‘** Oh, stow that gaff!” came in rough accents from the store. °“‘ Thar never was such dog- gone shoddy hung on ascarecrow; an’ you know it!” ** Ach! vat shall I *y% ou?” cried old Abraham, in despair, ‘‘ You don’t see no such coat like dot on de Gofernor of de State! Shust you look at dot clot’! I gif you my oat’, dere don’t come no goots like dot in dis country since de var. Vere you see a coat like dot coat, eh? Dere ain’t a rinkle in dot coat—ask my vife!” It was evident that there was no danger of interruption from that quarter. Old Abraham had forgotten his daughter and everything else, in the absorbing interest of a sale. The lover still wooed, with burning look and outstretched hand. ‘*No! no!” the girl kept pleading, in a low, agitated voice. Nevertheless, she rose, leaving her sewing on the table, and crossed the floor with the timid, ‘* Yes.” ‘* Waal, I’ve seen better looking chaps nor him in my days.” ‘*But did you ever see any one that looked anythin’ like him?” ‘* About the nose? I should smile!” ‘* Blather! I’m talkin’ biz, J be.” ‘* Waal, they all look pretty much of a much- ness tome. A sheeny’s a sheeny: an’ that’s all I kin make of it.” ‘* Look-a-hyar, Banty!—when I talk I'm a- sayin’ somethin’, I want you to take a squar’ squint at that snoozer, an’ say whether you ever see his like before—a fam’ly resemblance, ye onderstand.” The man addressed as Banty now turned for a serious scrutiny. The subject of examination lay asleep in the sun, outside a saloon door. His clothes were ragged and dirty. They told one partof his life history plainly enough—rum and ruin, But what was surprising in the circumstances was, that he was undoubtedly of the Hebrew race, What could have brought an Israelite to such a pass as this? Whatever their faults, the Hebrew seldom falls into such disrepute as marks the extreme degradation of other races of men. This man’s hands were soft and well shaped. His curly black hair was fine and as glossy as jet. So was his beard, though sadly neglected. is features were good. One saw at a glance that it would take very little to turn him into a fine-looking man. The men who stood staring at him were typical border ruffians. Both had a hang-dog look, but each after his kind. Cale Burchard was a surly rascal, witha brow always black with a frown, and a lip always curling with a sneer. Bowlegged Banty was of the order “ amar 6M No contortion of his countenance betrayed his inward malignity. His voice was ever under perfect control. They were a brace of seamps such as are sure to be ‘‘ wanted” somewhere, as these two were at Paddy’s Flat. It is needless to say that it was but for one purpose—to put them to tbe only occupation at which such chaps can be of benefit to the com- munity—hemp-stretching. ‘* Waal, come to look him over,” said Banty, hesitatingly, ‘‘’pears like I have seen him some’rs, But I don’t locate him, pard.” + You never seen him before. No more did 7 '“ Then what air ye shooting off your mouth about?” ‘* Stick to my text. Did you ever see anybody ** Rebecca! Rebecca! Come here!—come | hesitating steps of the fawn she so much resem- | like him?” kvick!” bled in grace and innocent shyness, ‘‘ Like him? Nary rooster o’ that descrip’. And the old lady went to play ber part in the As a gazelle stretches its neck to snuff the | An’ yet, I kinder drop to him, too.” comedy. hand held forth to it, so she, stopping ata dis- ‘* A woman for instance?” Harry knew it all by heart. He had been a victim of the old skinner’s arts, having the back of his coat puckered up while he looked at the front, and the front puckered up while he look- ed at the back, to prove that ‘“‘ anyway you look at it, dot fit you shust like de paper on de vall!” He too had old Rebecca summoned, to stand and raze, throwing up her hands in mute admira- t‘on, thus abetting the most barefaced repre- ®ntations of fact—all in the way of busiuess, which, even on Wall street, or among the big wre on Sixth avenue, cover a multitude of indles. But for once in his life Harry blessed the old Shylock’s eagerness to make a sale. He turned to the girl who had been left alone vith him. She was stitching like lightping—or would ‘ave done so, if her thread had not suddenly be- rayed an odd propensity to get tangled. er head was bowed so low over her work yat he could only see her hightened color, rithout being able to make out the expression * her face. ** Miriam!” he said, in a low, wooing voice, _ She sto all motion, save a perceptible ‘mor. He could see the quick rise and fall of r bosom; and her fluttering breath agitated a ark tress that fell across her cheek. ‘* Miriam!” he said again. “Tam glad that you receif de high office of ynor, young shentleman!” she said, with sud- «’ precipitancy, as if afraid of the silence with “ f “low voice vibrating through it. tance, reached out her hand, to intrust her fin- ger-tips to his clasp. But, alas! when he held those rosy hos he began to draw her toward him, calling tenderly by her name, as before: ‘* Miriam!” ‘*No! no! brave shentleman! kind shentle- man!” she pleaded. But he was remorseless, till his arm encircled her waist. For a moment she hung over him as he drew her to his side. Her hair fell against his face. He heard her breath fluttering between her lips, and felt it warm upon his cheek. Then— He scarcely knew what ome, (Saag but all in a flash she was away from him, back to the table, with her head bowed within the circle of her arms, and her face hidden from sight in the cambric she had been stitching. Dizzy with delight, and without a word to her further, Harry went into the store, and passed through to the street, scarcely noticed by Abraham or Rebecca, the former of whom was absorbed in the beatitude of having the price of bis last sale counted out to him, while his wife congratulated the customer on his bargain. Like a frightened wraith, the girl fled to the sanctuary of her own chamber, there to shed the first tears of happy love, And at this very instant a plot was in forma- tion, looking to the wreck of all ber hopes! CHAPTER III. A SLEEPING SON OF ABRAHAM. es, er ** A which?’ ‘Or a gal?” ‘* Hang me ef I hain’t!” **'Who?—who?” eagerly. ‘The leetle cuss what slipped through our fingers at Paddy’s Flat.” . ‘* The very picture of her!—eh?” ‘* Waal, I don’t see why we need git in a sweat about it.” ** Ye don’t, eh? Waal, J do!’ and Cale Bur- chard’s brow contracted with one of his ugliest scowls. He set to scratching his head in moody thought. ‘*The snoozer might be her brother, now,” he muttered, like a man feeling his way in the dark, ‘‘ or her father, blast him!” ‘** Look a-hyar, Cale!” cried Banty, “‘air you gittin’ maggots on the brain? You know as wellas I do, that the gal’s got one father an’ one mother already. Then what—” ‘**So they say!” interrupted Cale, dryly. Then he reached out and suddenly gripped his companion’s arm, as in a vise. ‘‘Eh! What’s gone with you?” cried Banty, trying to shake off the uncomfortable grasp. ‘I’m goin’ fur to git squar’!” cried Cale, with a ferocity fairly fiendish. ‘* Waal, don’t take it out o’ me!” **Come! let’s take a look over the ground. What’s peculiar up thar at Paddy’s Flat—hey?” ‘ a The ole Shylock an’ that thar angel e’s— ‘You bet! The flam what them gulls took in .* Don’t call me young gentleman,” he pleaded. Presto! Weare a hundred miles away from | like new milk!” ‘‘ Moestar Keene!” she corrected. Paddy’s Flat. ‘“*T "low two galoots of about our size guzzled ‘* That’s almost as bad as the other!” cried the ” boy. ‘Not that.” “Vat then?” asked the girl, with a low, flut- tering laugh. ‘* Harry!—just Harry!” : ~A The scene —— in a mining-camp not far from Sutter’s Mill, where gold was first dis- covered, ‘** Hi! jest look at that feller thar!” ** That sheeny?” rrr SS Ee ieee COC rere eC nS es a se eee —_— a ‘** We hitched on to her fur to levy toll on the ole man—” ‘* An’ got balked by ow, boys! S’pose we don’t say no more about that?” i. 4] : - a PRS iy COM cbooks.com